


The Darkness Grips

by SSO-Jack-Wolfwatcher (UglyJackal)



Category: Star Stable
Genre: Depression, M/M, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-14
Updated: 2017-05-14
Packaged: 2018-10-31 17:12:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10903824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UglyJackal/pseuds/SSO-Jack-Wolfwatcher
Summary: Request: Ydris helps Jack feel better when he's feeling down (I hope that made sense)





	The Darkness Grips

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Burgie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/gifts).



There were always days when Jack felt the darkness creep in. When his brain was swamped with inky mist, and his heart was drowned under a lake of jet black, obsidian tar. When his mouth was dragged down by weights at the side of his lips. He had deliberately avoided both Zelda and Ydris, for fear of dragging them down under the surface with him. And he didn’t want to be a burden. He had been throwing himself into his tasks around Jorvik, often feeling like he was running on auto-pilot as he repainted zebra crossings in the city of Jarlaheim and hammered bricks into the walls of bridges on Paddock Island. And then there were the days when he couldn’t will himself out of bed; when he couldn’t find the strength to push back the covers that lay across him; when all he could think about was how he wanted to die, to never wake up, to give everyone else a rest from him.

Today, he had dragged himself into his stable with his pillow; gave Dale, Robbie, Sportahorse and Rusty a hug, and when that didn’t make him feel any better, he had climbed up into the hay loft and flopped down on top of the wisps of hay. He wanted to cry, but he felt too numb for it - a heavy lead ball settled in his stomach and made him feel cold from head to foot.

‘Jack?’ Dale nickered worriedly.

‘Fuck off for a little, Dale…’ the rider replied.

The Lipizzaner snorted crossly and Jack heard a hoof stamp on the wooden floor. There was a twist in his stomach as he realised he had been so cruel to his horse, but it was quickly pushed back by the black fingers of mist.

It felt like hours, days, weeks, while he stared at nothing, until there was a rattle on the stable doors that were not any of his horses. He would have felt protective over his steeds standing in their stalls, not wanting any of them to be stolen, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care at the moment.

‘Jack?’ a deep, gentle voice laced with worry floated around the stable - its familiarity spearing at the black mist with its white flame.

When he didn’t answer, the wizard spoke again, but this time to the stable girl. ‘Where is he?’

Jack did not hear an answer so he assumed that Sasha the Stable Girl had wordlessly pointed up at the hay loft - she never did say much.

And then what he did hear was a creak as the ladder rungs were strained with weight. Then he heard footsteps muffled by the thin layer of hay, and a figure sat down gently beside him. A hand lay on his shoulder and another pushed his unwashed hair away from his face.

‘Don’t,’ Jack mumbled, ‘I look horrible.’ And he did: he hadn’t washed since the start of the week when the mist drew over him, and his hair hung limp from his head, while there was a lingering smell of body odour and horse around him like a bad aura.

‘I don’t care,’ the wizard said, laying down next to his boyfriend, ‘I don’t care how you smell or what you look like; it doesn’t stop me from loving the bones of you.’

‘You’re wasting your time,’ the rider said, hugging his arms around himself tightly.

Ydris frowned and pressed his body against Jack’s back. He shoved his arm underneath his boyfriend’s torso and pulled the smaller body - worryingly light - onto his own chest. He carded his hands through Jack’s limp blue hair, and scratched that point of the scalp that made the younger male wriggle with bliss. This had the desired effect, and Jack felt Ydris’ white spear of light battling away the inky mist inside him.

‘It’s just one of my moods… you know how I get sometimes,’ the rider muttered, ‘I’m a fucking mess and I have no clue why you love me.’

‘Because you are a wonderful human being,’ the wizard said, ‘you are kind and funny; you make me laugh even on the darkest of days; you are braver than I could ever dream of being. You have the weight of the world on your shoulders, and your strength rivals that of Jon Jarl, himself.’ Ydris finished his speech with a firm kiss to Jack’s forehead.

The younger man’s muscles ached as he grinned in what felt like forever. The mist had slowly dispersed from Ydris’ snow white spear as it had battled away the blackness. The black lake of tar in his stomach had been touched by Ydris’ gloved hand, his beam of bright light spreading into the thick liquid and penetrating it through the middle; splitting and diffusing it until it was but shreds of misery. He was not completely healed - he never would be - but for now, his mood lifted, and he could step out from under the black cloud that he had been under for so long.

‘I love you, Ydris,’ Jack said, looking into the other’s two-toned eyes, ‘more than you’ll ever know.’

The wizard smiled. ‘And I love you too, Jack,’ he replied, intertwining his fingers with his boyfriend’s.


End file.
